Anne Gordan has been in the education sector for more than 30 years. She started as a high school science teacher and is now a lecturer and consultant in the early childhood space. Anne has shared with us her love and passion for STEM and how she has integrated it into her practices even as a mum and grandma to a relational, contextualised play based inquiry. Her fascination on children’s theory really shapes her pedagogy and the questions that she presented to children that opens up to the idea of imagination and wondering and have shared with us the language and words that she uses in highlighting the connections with the concepts and the 'doing' in her many examples.    Guest speaker : Anne Gordon  (https://www.facebook.com/yellowhateducation/)   Host: Dee Suvanmani  @teachingjourneypodcast (https://www.instagram.com/teachingjourneypodcast/)

Rachel Smith is a Family Day Care educator based in a small town of 25 houses in Konorgong, NSW. She has been awarded Educator of the Year in 2020 and 2023 by Family Day Care Australia and recently been nominated for Women Changing the World Award. She is a perfect example of rising from adversity. Being through with personal and professional challenges she has an inspiring ability to self-reflect and motivate herself and others. She shared her recent blog post in Out of the Box blog page by 'baring it all' with the challenges she faced and that post have reached, inspired and connected educators nationwide who are in similar positions.   In this episode prologue, I've shared some reflections around finding your identity before finding your 'tribe':  Who are you as a teacher/educator/leader? What are your values and where does it sit in your practice? What are your passion and interest or what gets you very excited?     Guest speaker : Rachel Smith @rachelshomechildcarefdc (https://mailrhcc.wixsite.com/rachel-s-home-child)    Host: Dee Suvanmani  @teachingjourneypodcast (https://www.instagram.com/teachingjourneypodcast/)

Leanne Kapetanovski has worked in the sector for 33 years. She has worn many hats and taken on many leadership role from being a centre Director and a Preschool Field Officer.  We spoke in depth about change and how Leanne shares how she navigates when changes happens and was honest that she didn't like change and reflected on the discomfort. She shared some thought processes that she considers when is reflecting of the change and priority she place for the children and families as she considers on the impact of change that it can bring.   Guest speaker : Leanne Kapetanovski   Host: Dee Suvanmani  @teachingjourneypodcast (https://www.instagram.com/teachingjourneypodcast/)

Carrie Rose has been in the sector for 35 years and is a founder of The Rose Way consultancy. Carrie spoke about her challenges in her early days as a teacher and with working with people with different dispositions and pedagogical practices. She shared her reflection of her own traits and how it influences her relationship with people, her leadership style and the drive to the continual motivation after 35 years in the sector. And shared her latest passion and advocacy work on the access to quality of education for all children in Australia.    Reflections to ponder for this episode:  What does quality of early education look like to you? What are you seeing in practice at the moment? And do both (your vision and realities) are aligned? What are you doing in your everyday practice that reflects on your vision of quality early education? How can you as an early childhood professional close that gap to the quality ratings that we see at the moment?  Where/ how can you access information and expand your knowledge or practices on early education?     Resources mentioned in this episode:  Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority. (2023, November). National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshot Q3 2023 [PDF]. Retrieved from https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-11/NQF%20Snapshot%20Q3%202023_0.pdf   Oncken Jr., W., & Wass, D. L. (1999). Management time: Who's got the monkey? Harvard Business Review, 77(11), [PDF]. Retrieved fromhttps://evolutionpartners.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Management-Time_-Whos-Got-the-Monkey.pdf     Guest speaker : Carrie Rose (https://therosewayplanning.com/)    Host: Dee Suvanmani  @teachingjourneypodcast (https://www.instagram.com/teachingjourneypodcast/)

Sarah Louise is an exceptional leader and advocator for the Early Years Sector and have many years of experiences within the sector with multiple roles and leadership hats. She is now a consultant and founder of Learning to Lead in Early Childhood. Sarah Louise talks about Kind Leadership vs Nice Leadership and discussed what burnout can look like. She spoke passionately about her Social Justice advocacy work and shared with us behind her 'why' on continuing the work that she does within the Early Childhood Sector.    Resources:  Rogers, M. (2023, April 18). Early educators around the world feel burned out and devalued: Here is how we can help. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/early-educators-around-the-world-feel-burnt-out-and-devalued-heres-how-we-can-help-202513 Ng, J., Rogers, M., & McNamara, C. (2023). Early childhood educator’s burnout: A systematic review of the determinants and effectiveness of interventions. Issues in Educational Research, 33(1), 173. https://www.iier.org.au/iier33/ng.pdf   Guest: Sarah Louise Gandolfo (https://slmconti.wixsite.com/learningtoleadinec)   Host: Dee Suvanmani   Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Anson Li has been working within the Education sector for more than 10 years. He has a unique teaching background teaching in Secondary Education before transitioning into the early childhood sector. In this episode, we spoke about his journey and how he is constantly evolving as a teacher and as an individual. Throughout the recording, Anson demonstrated how deeply comfortable he is in being honest, open and reflective on his own self.  In the introduction, I spoke about Johari Window Model and looked at how Anson kept his window open for himself and to us as he reflected on his own experiences.   Resources:  The Johari Window Model: https://www.mindtools.com/au7v71d/the-johari-window   Guest: Anson Li (https://www.linkedin.com/in/anson-li-52820142/)  Host: Dee Suvanmani  Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Darren Halim who have worked in the EC sector for 5 years. He has share with us his personal experiences as a male educator, shedding light on the profound influence that small gestures, nuances in tone, and word choices shapes our approach to inclusivity and equity within the sector. We reflected on how well we do as teachers in fostering an inclusive environment for children and engage in numerous conversations around gender inclusivity, there remains a missed or limited opportunity to extend this reflective thinking to our colleagues, families, and broader communities.    Resources:  National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2019). Equity Definitions. NAEYC. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/equity/definitions Henderson, B. (2016) Gender Identity and Expression in the Early Childhood Classroom: Influences on Development Within Sociocultural Contexts. Young Children, 71(3) https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/jul2016/gender-identity   Red Ruby Scarlet. (2023). The Anti-Bias Approach in Early Childhood. Multiverse Publishers. https://multiverse.com.au/product/the-anti-bias-approach-in-early-childhood/   Guest: Darren Halim Host: Dee Suvanmani Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Shelli Giosis has been working in the EC sector for 30 years and stills carries the light of passion, enthusiasm and love for EC. She talks about all things that inspires her and how even after 30 years she still lots of learn. She invites us to join on to the 'train' of excitement. Start talking about what you are doing to others. Listen to yourself and get excited about the things that you are doing. Because when you are excited, the children gets excited and the energy translates to the team, families and the whole community of learning.   Guest: Shelli Giosis Host: Dee Suvanmani Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Joanne Tan has been working in the EC sector for 3 years and is from Indonesia. She spoke about the concept of sense of belonging and the complexities as migrants to find a space of belonging in a new country and in a new work environment. Joanne talks about how she feels to ‘fit in’ and often feeling intimidated by her colleagues who were all white Anglo-saxon Australian. She spoke about her journey of keeping her values and cultural identity close to her as she navigates herself into her teaching journey.   Guest: Joanne Tan Host: Dee Suvanmani Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Hakea Hustler is an award winning author of co-written books of Black Cockatoo, My Deadly Boots, Tracks of the Missing. She is also the co-owner of The Remote Teacher website providing resources to support teachers in remote community. She has passion for supporting and bringing teachers working in remote communities together. Successful teachers = positive outcomes for children and young people.  "Sometimes we don’t realise that we have a story in us and through the connection and collaboration that we do with others that we do have something worthwhile sharing" (Hakea Hustler).    Guest: Hakea Hustler The Remote Teacher website and resources: https://linktr.ee/theremoteteacheraus Host: Dee Suvanmani Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Jessica Staines, founder of Koori Curriculum is an advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have brought a lot of culture awareness and education on respectfully embedding First Nation’s perspectives specifically in early childhood education sector. Jessica spoke about the comfort in the discomfort of questing our practices as well as the importance of knowing The Framework and legislative well when we are advocating for social justice and children’s rights to use them as a guide in our reflective practice.  Link to Koori Curriculum website: https://kooricurriculum.com/

Lynette Tah is an amazing, passionate and well articulated leader. Her journey is so inspiring as she has moved countries to find happiness. She spoke about the importance of reflective questions and how she unpacks her own vulnerabilities by questioning herself. Lynette is the perfect example to find the space where you belongs- somewhere that aligns with your values and beliefs – which in return is a space for you to grow and thrive.

Eliza Lee has been working in the sector for more than 30 years, starting off as a Mothercraft nurse and now is working in a rural community kindergarten. With all the years of experiences and knowledge under her belt, Eliza still radiates passion and open to new learnings in early childhood.

Anna Zhang is currently teaching in a non for profit early learning centre in Sydney. She spoke about her passion in early childhood which stems from her mentor who she had an amazing connection with during placement. Anna has a deep appreciation to the honest and constrictive feedback she had received and more importantly this has been a drive to achieve a high quality of education and leadership in her current practice. See below on the many advocacy projects which she mentioned in the episode:  EduObs: www.EduObs.com ( empower early childhood teachers with technology). YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@earlyyearswithanna Blog: https://earlyyearswithanna.blogspot.com Instagram: earlyyearswithanna

Laura Kerr and Jessica Branca have both worked together 4 years ago in an early learning centre. They are both pocket rocket filled with passion for early childhood education and their energy is infectious. They spoke about their drive for advocacy for children and how it translates into their curriculum and pedagogies by pushing boundaries and thinking outside the box but yet still delivering it within the policies and regulations.

Rachael McBrien is a centre director, educational leader and kindergarten teacher in a centre in Merribek. Racheal has a wonderful perspectives of positive outlook and highlighted that even she has been in the sector for more than 10 years, she still have the ability to reflect within herself, her team and her community and the openness to unpacking the practices and implementations within the centre and practices.

Rajy Xavier has a Degree in Electrical engineering and a Masters in education. Her passion for science and children has shaped her pedagogical teaching practices. She has given us some great ideas on embedding STEM education in early childhood context and highlights the importance of embedding it in our everyday practices with children.

In this episode, I sat down with Fiona Ye who is a kindergarten teacher in a small non for profit centre in Fairfield. Fiona spoke about her own experiences navigating the big ocean of early childhood and how she tackled the sharks swimming around her as a new beginning teacher. She also spoke very openly about the failures in her professional journey- and very inspiringly, she embraced them and used them as tools to improve her practices.

Dorianne Prinzi has been working in the sector for 20 years now and she is currently a Preschool Field Officer at Merri-Bek Council (previously known as Moreland). She spoke about her journey in the different roles she has been in and how privileged she is in the connections she had with families and children. She also unpacked the evolution of growth she has undertaken (and is still going) and how she is always looking at the positives when faced with adversity.

Rita Ravida is a Director and Kindergarten Teacher in a community based sessional kindergarten at Newlands Preschool and has been in the Early Years sector for 30 years. She spoke deeply and passionately about two things that she has combined -Reirki and Early Childhood Education and how she has made it her own over the years as she evolve into the teacher she is today.